FIANNA FÁIL backbencher Dr Jim McDaidsaid he did not deserve a ministerial pension and would give it up if there was a rational debate on the issue.

Dr McDaid said his pension had been going to a “worthy cause’’ for quite some time, as some journalists and people in Donegal knew.

“I have here my last six cheques, unopened, which will go to the same source,’’ he said. “And by the way, they have no votes.’’

Dr McDaid, who represents Donegal North-East, Galway East TD Noel Treacyand MEP Pat "the Cope'' Gallagherremain the only serving politicians drawing ministerial pensions.

Dr McDaid was speaking during the debate on a Fine Gael private members’ motion demanding an end to the payment of ministerial pensions to Oireachtas members. The House will vote on the motion today.

Taoiseach Brian Cowenand Minister for Finance Brian Lenihaninsisted that the Fine Gael proposal was unconstitutional.

Dr McDaid asked how, as a medical doctor, who had earned a healthy salary all his life, and who had enjoyed a TD’s salary for over 20 years, he could possibly claim to be entitled to a top-up of €22,000 annually because he had happened to hold ministerial office in a previous Dáil.

“I am not deserving of a ministerial pension, nor do I need it, and if this debate can occur in a calm and rational way, and it is the express wish of this House, I will happily forgo it,’’ he added.

But he said, the debate was neither calm nor rational. It was being driven by “a media-fuelled paranoia’’, where the sole aim was the sale of newspapers and advertising space, not the preservation of democratic principles.

Fine Gael's finance spokesman Richard Brutonchallenged Dr McDaid's assertion that there was a witch-hunt and a campaign to hound down some individuals.

“I think it just shows the extent to how some people in politics have become divorced from the reality that is out there around us,’’ he added.

He said that young people coming out of college had “a legitimate expectation’’, to use the Government’s phrase in defending the pensions, that they could live, work and rear their families in the State. Referring to TDs’ incomes, Mr Bruton said: “How can you say it is a witchunt against some one who is on close to €100,000, at the top of the tree in the public service?’’

Mr Lenihan said what had been witnessed in the past week or so was “a personalised focus on the pension position of individuals’’ which was unedifying and did little to advance any reasonable argument about fairness or leading by example. He accepted, he said, that there was a need to ensure that leadership was shown by all Oireachtas members.